Well, Now I Own A Pinball Machine Too!

[shutyertrap]

Well first off...youve learned alot and I suspect how the guy sold it to you for all you dont know it was a show. your best bet is to recoup your spending, this means fix it up best you can and get rid of it and be HONEST! its a project you took on that you wernt ready for. If you make $1 you have a story and $1+valuable knowledge next time...but it your 1st

I think I can safely say it was no show. Dude's phone was ringin', some for CL listings, others family members checking how he's doing. He was a rollercoaster of emotion. How he 'got' me was by rushing me to either sh!t or get off the pot. He wouldn't let me take off the glass, I never even opened the backbox (but then I didn't know how...had to watch a youtube vid to find out!), I'm surprised he let me turn it on now that I think about it. I just got immediately intimidated and felt that if I even attempted to negotiate he'd toss me out of his house. And I really wanted a table.

I am a firm believer in things happening for a reason. Having the money and the table become available on the same day, all signs pointed to "go". Now I have a project, and I've never tackled a project before. I don't work on cars, I'm not a DIYer around the house. Taking the easy way out and paying for all that is immediately available to me is not gonna happen, as this is a completely non essential luxury. So yeah, I'm in new territory and it makes me nervous. Had I had the time to think, I'd still be without a table.

Ya know what I did after I posted? Went out to the garage, turned all the lights off, played a good 20 games or so. And apparently I suck. Couldn't get one multiball going. As I was playing, I didn't think about not hearing "You are destroyed", couldn't care less about the wonky post (and removing that rubber made a nice difference btw), couldn't see the bad paint.

Instead, I was creating a mental checklist that I can't wait to get at. The #5 target is having a hard time registering (1 in 10 hits counts), I really need new rubber for the flippers as there is zero bounce, which is leading to more STM than should be (who knew the tips were so key?), if I bump the coin door hard it gives me a credit, what if I painted the planet to look like the death star and the ship into an x-wing and changed the fire and power inserts so that they said star and wars...

 

[Mayuh]

I looked into the soundboard issue a little: speaking to my friend who can resurrect almost anything that is in a backbox, if you have sound but no speech, the sound board works with the rest of your hardware. And that is a good thing

It could be easily a faulty connector (not getting the signal to play the sound) or an EPROM that de-programmed itself over time (they're UV sensitive for erasing). Or, what I had in my Taxi, the ROM was flipped (once) and it was destroyed this way (received voltage on a data pin).

I don't know if you know anybody with a EPROM programmer, but the chip itself is $2 and the software can be downloaded from http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=856

If all this fails there are replacements boards, maybe yours is already one... http://www.pinballpcb.com/System6-7SoundBoard.html

On a side note: the best thing you did, was to fire it up and play!

 

[pinbot-76]

Congrats on your first pin! I noticed you posted on pinside, which is a also great resource. I bought my first pin about a year ago and now have 3... and pinside has been extremely helpful since none of my games are in pristine condition. My advice would be to not kill yourself trying to get this game fully restored. Play it and have fun, but also use it to learn how to perform some basic repairs. CPR makes repro playfields but it will cost more than you paid for the pin.

It takes a while to learn about all the repairs you'll eventually want to do but it's a fun hobby, so enjoy it and take your time. I drop all kinds of money at Pinball Life since I'm always wanting to tweak this that & the other. Changing color schemes of pop bumpers, flippers, rubber, LEDs. I also had to invest a bit of money since I'm not a big tool guy and needed a bunch of random things (Novus, soldering iron, socket set)

 

[Shaneus]

Wow dude that was a freaking bargain! Here in Australia you'd be paying well over $1000 for a Firepower in that condition.
Good to see that someone down the track moved the batteries off the CPU board, because old leaky batteries have caused a lot of damage to these delicate boards.

Congrats on the purchase!!

A mate of mine has two FPs in better condition... all I need for him to lend me one is room, which, being in a single-BR unit, I don't have

I do have a garage I don't use, though. Hmmmmmm..... never thought of that.

 

[Baron Rubik]

Check out what's on UK EBAY at the minute!

End time: 3 Jun 2013 20:20:34

Item: WILLIAMS FIREPOWER PINBALL MACHINE DECK IDEAL FOR RE FIT OR WALL HANGING 1979

URL: http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=140970010947

Alt URL: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WILLIAMS-...-IDEAL-RE-FIT-WALL-HANGING-1979-/140970010947

 

[shutyertrap]

I looked into the soundboard issue a little: speaking to my friend who can resurrect almost anything that is in a backbox, if you have sound but no speech, the sound board works with the rest of your hardware. And that is a good thing

It could be easily a faulty connector (not getting the signal to play the sound) or an EPROM that de-programmed itself over time (they're UV sensitive for erasing). Or, what I had in my Taxi, the ROM was flipped (once) and it was destroyed this way (received voltage on a data pin).

I don't know if you know anybody with a EPROM programmer, but the chip itself is $2 and the software can be downloaded from http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=856

If all this fails there are replacements boards, maybe yours is already one... http://www.pinballpcb.com/System6-7SoundBoard.html


On a side note: the best thing you did, was to fire it up and play!

It's not a faulty connector...it's just the wrong soundboard! It should be 2 boards joined together, the smaller of the two has the speech roms. My board is from an earlier system 6 machine possibly, with the Firepower sound chip put on.

Thanks for the link though. Good to know that if I don't come across a cheap replacement down the line, there's always going new for the extra dough. And your link is half the price someone else on pinside linked me to!

 

[shutyertrap]

Check out what's on UK EBAY at the minute!

End time: 3 Jun 2013 20:20:34

Item: WILLIAMS FIREPOWER PINBALL MACHINE DECK IDEAL FOR RE FIT OR WALL HANGING 1979

URL: http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=140970010947

Alt URL: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WILLIAMS-...-IDEAL-RE-FIT-WALL-HANGING-1979-/140970010947

Oh man, what would the cost of shipping that to the states be?! Scary.

I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for this kind of option though. I can't think of anything more intimidating for a complete noob to this than transferring over the entire wire harness, but it'd sure as hell be educational!

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

Take lots of photos. connectors usually only plug where theyre suppose to go.
Heres the pair of sound boards $50
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/1980-Firepow...-Gorgar-/181135706768?clk_rvr_id=478726333531

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

I just seen the soun boards arnt listed anymore did you buy them syt?

 

[shutyertrap]

Nope. With 4 hours left to eBay auction, I sent a message asking if seller would be willing to negotiate on price should it not sell. Not a half hour later, it suddenly had a bid. No big whoop. I can use a board from Black Night, Gorgar, Jungle King, and a few others, so eventually finding one for the right price should be possible. Or maybe that WAS the right price. I don't know, I'm new to this!!

Low priority thing for me right now anyways.

 

[dtown8532]

Nope. With 4 hours left to eBay auction, I sent a message asking if seller would be willing to negotiate on price should it not sell. Not a half hour later, it suddenly had a bid. No big whoop. I can use a board from Black Night, Gorgar, Jungle King, and a few others, so eventually finding one for the right price should be possible. Or maybe that WAS the right price. I don't know, I'm new to this!!

Low priority thing for me right now anyways.

Getting one from a Firepower is still the easiest thing because you'll still need the game specific sound and speech ROM for it.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Told ya you got a deal:

http://wausau.craigslist.org/ele/3762005394.html

 

[shutyertrap]

Well, can't say much has happened yet with the table as of yet. I did manage to get the broken screw out of the playfield, thanks to a Dremel creating a flathead slot and then backing it out. When I took off the metal ball guide, I was greeted with the sight of 3 different screws holding it in place; 2 wood screws of different lengths and a machine screw.

That kind of think drives me bonkers (unless that's how it's supposed to be).

I'm in the process of getting all my ducks in a row so that I can tear this mother down. Thought of building a rotisserie off some plans posted on pinside, but don't really feel like putting $80 into that when I could put it into the table. Instead gonna borrow 2 saw horses from a buddy who is also gonna lend me his airbrush kit. Gonna yank the playfield, strip it down, and then get to some fixin' of someone else's crappy paint job.

But first...I had to clean the garage.

Wife is happy since she can put her car in again, I'm happy since I created an area I'll be able to work on the table. Hopefully next week I'll have pics of the thing in pieces for y'all.

 

[karl]

If I had a garage like that, it would look a bit different

 

[shutyertrap]

If I had a garage like that, it would look a bit different

It's only my first table!

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

It's only my first table!

Yeah, as opposed to what, Karl's sixth?

 

[shutyertrap]

The fooseball table to the left of the pin, that's my placeholder!

Actually it's gonna be craiglist fodder so I might have money to buy parts. Once gone, I'll put 2 saw horses there to hold the playfield.

 

[ER777]

...what if I painted the planet to look like the death star and the ship into an x-wing and changed the fire and power inserts so that they said star and wars...

George Lucas would track you down and make you pay a 25¢ royalty for every game you play, that's what!

 

[Mayuh]

Wait... One, two, three, four,..... Yeah, that's 22 pins fitting in there

 

[shutyertrap]

George Lucas would track you down and make you pay a 25¢ royalty for every game you play, that's what!

Wouldn't be George, it'd be the Mouse...and I live only 15 miles from his house! Okay, I'll just stick to repairing the original artwork.